29 September 2010 4:27 PM

Tess Daly is every bit as glamorous and polished off-screen as she is on the telly.

I met the Strictly Come Dancing presenter in the Dorchester, doing back-to-back interviews with beauty journalists to talk about the latest additions to her highly successful product range.

She is so excited about the new products that she’s barely got time to think about the new series of Strictly.

It turns out, she had, that morning (for the first time in her life, she admitted) done the school run without wearing a scrap make-up.

‘I felt very naked!’ she confessed. Tess is a walking advert for her own product range, all glowing skin (thanks to Daly Light Radiant Dewy Glow Luminisor, £9.50) and tanned bare legs (courtesy of Daly Legs Invisible Stockings, also £9.50) and I can’t imagine she looks bad without make-up, any day of the week.

She normally has her morning routine down to less than ten minutes.

‘First moisturiser, then luminiser, then a tinted moisturiser, then cream (not powder) blush and finally I curl my lashes and I'm off. After the school run I come back and add mascara, curl my lashes again and that lasts me all day,’ she explained.

I am always fascinated by other peoples’ beauty routines in the morning – and always on the lookout for time-saving tips and new products.

I may have found one to make mornings a bit easier.

There is a tinted moisturiser in the range, Daly Tint (£12) which gives a touch of colour and helps even out skin tone and makes your skin look instantly fresh and natural. Unlike Tess, I won’t be leaving home in the morning without it...

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27 September 2010 3:43 PM

I popped into the Daniel Hersheson salon in Harvey Nichols today for a quick blow dry and came out with what they call a ‘Wavy Gravy’ - beachy, natural curls - a style I chose from the menu of Hersheson looks for this season.

My hair was blow-dried quickly, before being tonged to get the loose waves effect. I don’t know about you, but I can never tong my hair properly myself and sometimes end up burning my wrists in the process (I still bear the scars).

In any case, it never looks as good when I do it myself as it does when a professional does it.

Stylist Katherine de Rozario says the secret of achieving Drew Barrymore style sexy waves is to take a section of hair, then twist it once so that the root sits flatter and then to wrap it round the barrel of the tongs once and move it up and down, so that the curls don’t end up too tight.

Her best tip for keeping the curl is to spray each segment with L’Oreal Professional’s Techni-Art Constructor Spray, £8.80 (lookfantastic.com) which helps to make the style last longer.

You can try the look at home with the YOGI Hair Wand, which is one of the easiest to use. Celebrities including Amanda Holden, Katy Perry, Cheryl Cole are all sporting YOGI curls, and they’ve been seen on the catwalks at London and NYC fashion weeks.

The YOGI Hair Wand is the fastest-selling electrical hair curling wand in the UK this year and the new addition to the range, which launches next week on QVC, has three barrels in one (small, medium and large - medium being the original YOGI Hair Wand barrel).

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24 September 2010 8:04 AM

When did we all become so obsessed with nail polish? It’s true that nail polish has taken over from the It bag – with more and more new shades from all the leading nail brands launching this autumn and creating such excitement that there are now long waiting lists.

Top of the Most Wanted Nail Polish list is Chanel’s new Paradoxal – the purple grey must-have shade for autumn, which looks like being every bit as popular as Particulere was earlier this year.

This has been such great demand for this since it went on sale in Debenhams, Oxford Street, last month that the store has to keep restocking.

And Nubar's latest must-have colour for the season has also just temporarily sold out.

Peacock Feathers, which like Paraodoxal, launched last month, has been taking the beauty world by storm and there has been so much hype around the shade there is now a growing waiting list for that one too.

Nubar nail lacquers are eco-friendly and free from formaldehyde, pthalates and toluene and have a big celebrity following, including Cheryl Cole, Leona Lewis and Lauren Conrad.

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23 September 2010 3:00 PM

When I was a magazine editor, I used to go to the Fashion Collections in Milan and Paris and hated the stress of deciding what to wear and pack for the shows (the shoes alone were a nightmare).

Packing skincare and hair products and make-up to help you survive a few days in a hotel room with fashion parties to go to also took painful planning.

Whether you’re a Front Row veteran or going away for a long weekend, it’s a problem for anyone, whenever you have to stay overnight in a hotel and can’t access your usual products and tools.

I used to decant all my favourite cleansers and lotions into travel sized mini bottles. But who has the time to do that? I now buy mini sizes and rely on wipes, which I love.

Simple has a great travel kit, Goddess To Go, which is £7 and contains mini sizes of Kind To Skin Cleansing Facial Wipes, Moisturising Facial Wash, Facial Toner and Hydrating Light Moisturiser.

It’s just enough to last three or four days away or a long weekend. The Kind To Skin Facial Cleansing Wipes (99 pence) are a British beauty icon, and are now the UK’s best selling facial skincare product, with one pack sold every five seconds.

It comes as no surprise that many top make-up artists bulk-buy them for their make-up kits during the collections.

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21 September 2010 6:42 PM

Love it or hate it (I guess it depends whether you remember it from the first time around) the Seventies look will be back with a vengeance next year, going on the seventies inspired clothing and retro tans we have seen on the catwalk during London Fashion Week.

Tans show no sign of going out of fashion, but it’s all about luxe, matte tanned-looking skin.

At Topshop Unique, James Read, the self-tanning guru (The Tantalist) used a light dusty technique to apply 3-4 layers of self-tan to give the skin a deep golden look, and on the legs he used St. Tropez's wash-off mousse to add a matte look.

He then lightly layered the wash-off mist to add extra definition.

This complimented the make-up by Hannah Murray (patent red lips) the hair by Paul Hanlon (fluffy) and the nails by Sophy Robson (disco glam with embellished crystal and glitter).

James has had a particularly busy fashion week. At the Topshop show he spray-tanned 47 models on his own in four hours…

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20 September 2010 6:32 PM

I’m just getting used to the idea of naked nails again for next year and now as well as the trend for Mannequin nails (where fashionistas are wearing skin tone nail varnish) we are also going to be seeing something called the Mannequin Tan.

I’m not sure how the pale and interesting look works with self-tanning, but James Read, one of the UK’s top self-tanning experts (also known as The Tantalist) explained 'It’s all about matching the right tan tone with your outfit, nails and make-up,' James tanned 15 models with Fake Bake's Flawless Tan at the PPQ show at London Fashion Week and custom-made the special tan for them.

‘This season is all about flawless porcelain-looking skin,’ he told me.

'The Mannequin Tan is currently in vogue and like fashion, tans change with each season. This S/S London Fashion week is about golden glowing skin with a hint of light reflecting finish, so highlighting the areas on show like arms and legs to add definition,’ James gets the desired look by applying one fine layer of Fake Bake moisturiser on the body (this will reflect the light and compliment the skin).

He then applied Fake Bake Flawless tan on to the areas on show. “This is finely misted using a layering technique which makes the spray seem dry and allows you to tan and go, then I finished with bronzers to highlight areas,” he revealed.

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15 September 2010 1:51 PM

Today I cleared-out my old make-up.There are so many new products to try for the Beauty Confidential column that I needed to make space for all the new ones which are heading my way for autumn and winter. Even I was surprised at what I had stashed away in my make-up drawer.

I realise this is more than the average woman keeps in her beauty kit - I am, after all, a beauty writer and get sent things to try all the time - but some of those products have been festering away for years and more importantly, I never actually use most of them.

I hardly ever wear eye make-up (I have very sensitive eyes and most producst make them run) so why did I need 10 eye shadow palettes? And when you think that each palette contains at least 4 different shades - I had 40 eye shadows, all in the same brown/beige/pink combination which are the only shades I ever wear, if I do ever wear eye make-up (which now, you know, isn't very often).

They have all now been dumped and it is wonderful to have the space back.I love de-cluttering, it gives you such a lovely sense of control back over your life. There may be chaos and madness all around, but at least I have a minimalist make-up kit! You will never guess what happened next. two hours after I disposed of the final bin bag, a delivery arrived from a PR company - of - a fabulous Lulu Guinness make-up bag!

It came packed with Avon make-up - 2 mascaras, Eye Liner, an Eye Shadow Quad, Foundation, Lip Juice (a gloss, very similar to Lancome's Juicy Tubes), Nail Enamel and their brilliant primer, the MagiX Face Perfector SPF20 (£10, avon.co.uk). This is why my friends say it's the best job in the world! In the meantime, I can start building up my new make-up collection and don't have to go out to dinner tonight with a bare face.

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14 September 2010 5:25 PM

I jumped in a cab this afternoon and the cab driver, started moaning on about the amount of beauty products his wife has.

They recently had a huge clear-out because they were moving house and he counted seven bottles of nail polish, three bottles of nail varnish remover, six cans of hairspray, five pots of face cream (some over five years old), countless lotions, serums and gels, umpteen bottles of half used shampoo and conditioner and a ton of make-up that was years old.

"WHY on earth do women have to have so many beauty products?" he grumbled. "Most of them are past their sell-by date - so why do you have to hang on to them? Why, why why?"

Now, I am as guilty as the next person and even if I didn't write a beauty column for a living, I would still be a beauty hoarder. I have always been loathe to part with any beauty product, especially if it cost a lot of money. But the truth is (and I know this for a fact) beauty products go off.

They really do. Sell-by dates on beauty products are not a marketing ploy to get you to buy more, they harbour germs, they don't perform as well and trust me on this, they will smell bad. Really bad.

Mascara should be thrown out after three months, face creams after six months, shampoo and conditioner and cleansers, as soon as they are opened. If a face cream doesn't suit you, give it to a friend or throw it out - but unlike clothes, which you can always give to Oxfam, you can't donate half-used pots of moisturiser or lipstick that's been used a couple of times to charity.

And what do you do with unwanted bottles of perfume? There's no point in hanging on to those as they will be the first to go off. If you don't like the smell in the first place, I can promise you won't like it two years past its sell-by date.

It's the right time of year to clear out unwanted stuff - to give yourself more space and also to make room for all the fabulous new make-up and skincare products that are hitting the shelves this month.I am now inspired to have a clear out myself - I'm going to throw out everything that I no longer use or want, whether it's Dior or Rimmel - I'm going to be ruthless.

My sole aim, for the new season, is to have a minimalist make-up kit, containing just the essentials I need to get me through the new season.

I will put them in a nice, clear plastic see-through make-up bag (M&S do the best, a set of three transparent bags for £5) so I can see at a glance where my foundation, blusher, lipstick and mascara are. I'm going to make a start tomorrow and then I'll tackle the over-crowded bathroom shelves (and that's another story)...